Founded in 1974 by Paul Allen and Bill gates, Microsoft is among the largest computer technology companies in the world. Microsoft's first major operating system was DOS (Disk Operating System). They released Windows 1.0 in 1984. In 2000, Bill Gates retired and Steve Ballmer became Microsoft's new CEO. Microsoft has since created such products as Bing, Office, Windows Live, Internet Explorer and their latest mobile smartphone OS, Windows Phone 7. Read our Microsoft coverage for the latest Windows Phone 7 news, reviews and videos:

Whether you call it Windows Phone 10, or Windows 10 for phones, it is indeed the next generation Microsoft mobile platform to grace phones (how many of the current phones is yet unknown), and is expected to be unveiled next week at a certain January 21 special event. Until then, we can look at these images from China, which allegedly show off some of the details of the upcoming OS. The Windows Phone 10 leak above allegedly shows off the Start screen with a background image -- though questions arise concerning tile transparency, or lack of it -- and tile group titles which, in this ...

Nokia launched the affordable Lumia 635 all the way back in April (making this a proper Nokia Lumia, before Microsoft transitioned the family over to its own branding), and in the months since, we've seen the phone come to more and more carriers. Over the summer, networks like T-Mobile and AT&T got their hands on the phone, and back in December we got word of the phone finding some new homes: Boost and Virgin now sell the phone for their no-contract plans, and we heard that Sprint would eventually be picking it up for regular postpaid plans. Today's the day that finally happens, as ...

Microsoft's Lumia Denim is probably one of the most anticipated Windows Phone updates since the inception of the operating system. On its own, Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 does a good enough job at setting Microsoft's mobile operating system on par with competition, but Lumia Denim takes a couple of steps further in differentiating Microsoft's hardware from even other Windows Phones. The list of updates that come with Lumia Denim is quite significant, but Microsoft felt the camera enhancements alone were important enough to give us a tour during our stay in Las Vegas for CES 2015. Our ...

Last week we saw countless smartphone companies jockeying for a moment in the spotlight, as they all struggled to get their products some attention at a crowded trade show. Of course, there comes a point where you get big enough that you don't have to rely on some expo to get the public's attention, and there are few companies out there that can say they're as big as Microsoft. So even a week removed from CES, when Redmond comes strolling along with a couple new smartphones, we're sitting up and taking notice. That's just what the company's doing today, revealing the Lumia 435 and Lumia ...

We're just over a week away from January 21, the date Microsoft has set for its next big Windows 10 event. While the next edition of the company's operating system family was announced back near the start of fall, Microsoft's been taking its time in sharing all the details, and we've patiently awaited the day when it would turn its spotlight on the intersection between Windows 10 and mobile devices: it looks like January 21 will be that day. In preparation for the event, Microsoft has a new Phone Insider app out, one that's expected to give many users their first taste of Windows 10 on ...

With as many products that show up at trade events like CES, it's inevitable that some will resemble others to an extent. Of course, there are devices that have a thing or two in common, and then there are those that veer much closer to outright copycat territory, a situation we looked at earlier today after Oppo started speaking out about the Polaroid Selfie phone and its unmistakably N1-clone of a design. We find ourselves back in look-alike territory this evening as we hear about the Remix “ultra-tablet” from Jide Technology, an Android tablet that might look more at home in ...

CES 2015 is already starting to wind down, and though we've been able to check out a nice assortment of new products, there hasn't been much to share from the world of Windows Phone. Sure, we got those platform-agnostic Alcatel Onetouch Pixi 3 models, but nothing really high-end; anything like new Lumias will have to wait. Almost as if in a conciliatory gesture, Microsoft has decided to give us something to tide us over until its next major launch, and today announced plans to release new gold-hued special editions of the Lumia 830 and Lumia 930. Both the 830 and 930 will be coming out in ...

As you may recall, ten days ago I returned to my long-neglected Lumia 1020 for the holidays. This overdue reunion of contrarian nerd with fringe platform was meant to answer a question we get quite often in the Pocketnow Weekly mailbag: at the dawn of a new year, is Windows Phone still a world worth moving to (or even visiting)? In an atmosphere of delayed flagship launches and growing skepticism among some smartphone manufacturers, the question is more pertinent than ever. The answer, as it turns out, is yes — but it carries some very important qualifiers, and it's certainly not ...

The Lumia 1520 is not only the largest Windows Phone money can buy, but it's also one of the most powerful models to reach the market. We highly praised Microsoft for the existence of the Lumia 1520, even though a ton of people agree that it's far too big for the average user. That said, the launch of the Lumia 1520 on AT&T left certain exclusive rights when it came to color options, and that just ended. If you remember, the Lumia 1520 launched on AT&T in April, and the specific Green color variant was an exclusive to AT&T for an undisclosed amount of time. We're not sure how ...

As usual, at the end of every year, we’re looking back at what happened over the course of twelve exciting months — that got us a lot of extraordinary products and services. We not only do this because it’s fun and important to recap some crucial events, but also because we usually also look at the future, trying to anticipate what the next year will bring us; and, in order to realistically try to predict things from the future, we need to know what happened in the past. So far, we looked at what we think were the best and worst apps of 2014, as well as the biggest disappointments ...

Even though most of us agree that Microsoft has done an amazing job at closing the app gap over the last couple of years, that doesn't change the fact that the iOS and Android currently sports almost triple the amount of apps on Windows Phone. The market share difference between these three platforms still leaves a significant challenge for developers to consider Windows Phone, even after the platform's fourth anniversary. Microsoft's new leadership has the task of improving these numbers soon, and today we learn how the company plans to do it. Mary Jo Foley is famous for her insider ...

Where the heck is the Lumia 735? Ever since it launched back in September, we've been anticipating Microsoft's plans to make the phone available to shoppers in the US. FCC documentation sure seemed to support the idea of the 735 coming to Verizon, a theory backed up by separate rumors. As of a few weeks ago, the 735 found itself on a holding pattern on Microsoft's website, listed alongside other Lumia models and showing off its various color options, but with the note “available soon” in place of a price or any hard ETA. That was fine, and we were content to wait patiently for more ...

As usual, at the end of every year, we’re looking back at what happened over the course of twelve exciting months — that got us a lot of extraordinary products and services. We not only do this because it’s fun and important to recap some crucial events, but also because we usually also look at the future, trying to anticipate what the next year will bring us; and, in order to realistically try to predict things from the future, we need to know what happened in the past. Just yesterday, we looked at what we think were the best and worst apps of 2014, and today we're continuing our ...

It may be too late for meaningful holiday gift-shopping at this late hour (and no, your whatever you can find at the local mini mart doesn't count), but the smartphone deals keep right on popping up. A few weeks back we spotted a very attractive offer for the Lumia 530, with the already-budget-priced smartphone selling for a mere $35. While that was great in its own right, today we learn about a better-equipped cousin of the 530 scoring a nearly-as-good offer for itself, with Radio Shack selling the AT&T Lumia 635 for as little as $40. This is the no-contract Go Phone version of the ...

We've got smartphone software that tracks eye movement. We have keyboards that allow you to just drag your finger over the screen, rather than tapping individual keys. Microsoft's realized just what kind of potential there might be if we could tie those two technologies together, and in a new patent it discusses a system that uses eye-tracking to let users interact with virtual keyboards. The idea's just like swipe-based keyboard software, but instead of tracking the motion of your fingertip, the system tracks eye movement. As your glance moves from key to key, darting around and changing ...

For months I've carried on under the guise of a Windows Phone user. My Twitter profile states it outright; longtime readers cite it in my defense whenever commenters call me on the carpet for "anti-Microsoft bias"; and my friends even unwittingly re-verify it when choosing random Facebook photos to tag me in. But as I explained in last week's episode of the Pocketnow Weekly podcast, my title of Windows Phone user has dwindled to a largely honorary one of late. The neverending stream of review devices from the Android, iOS, and wearable worlds has kept me outside the Microsoft ecosystem ...

With the branding change that most, if not all Microsoft services received recently, don't feel odd if this headline doesn't remind you of the now defunct Bing Translator. Microsoft is now naming everything under its current brand, and these changes even include some hefty updates for some services. Today we learn that Microsoft is adding more functionality to some of its services, and that even includes tools to translate. Microsoft Translate was recently updated to version 3.2, and the changes include voice support for different versions of English, French and Spanish. These changes ...

The launch of the Lumia 1320 was clearly overshadowed by its sibling, the Lumia 1520. Surely the Lumia 1320 was intended to be a mid-tier phablet for those in need of a big display on a tight budget, but that doesn't change the fact that the spec differences with the Lumia 1520 made some users prefer to pay the extra cash. We've heard rumors of Microsoft's smartphone plans for 2015, and today we learn more about the successor of the Lumia 1320. For the purpose of this post, we'll dub this smartphone the Lumia 1330, even if that data isn't yet confirmed. New leaks claim that this device ...

For the past week now, we've been talking about issues the Lumia 535 has been having with its touchscreen, and while it sounded quite annoying, we were relieved to hear that Microsoft had acknowledged the problem and was developing a fix. By Friday, we had heard that the fix was nearly ready to go out, and users could expect to start seeing it arrive shortly before the end of the month, on December 27. As it turns out, you may not even have to wait that long, and today Microsoft confirms that its new Lumia 535 update is rolling out to users now. Sure enough, the touchscreen fix is in, and ...

Updated with links to the high-quality version of the podcast (both to stream and download it), as well as timecodes to let you jump through the podcast. As always, thanks for listening, and we'll see you right here next week! "Bring us alternate topics," you said. And boy oh boy, have the waning days of December delivered. On today's podcast, we're joined by Daniel Bader of MobileSyrup for a firsthand account of the BlackBerry Classic launch and an acoustic retelling of MobileSyrup's BlackBerry Classic review, told as only a true Canadian can tell it. On the heels of that, we're ...

We got this week started by sharing some unfortunate news about the Lumia 535, one of Microsoft's latest affordable Windows Phone models. Multiple reports had been turning up from users frustrated with the smartphone's touchscreen sensitivity, but there was hope: one of Microsoft's international arms reached out to a 535 owner on social media and mentioned that the company was developing an update aimed at correcting this glitch. That sounded great to us, but just when could we expect this fix to materialize? More good news: not much longer, with Microsoft reportedly working to get this ...

Yesterday we saw Microsoft prepping for wider distribution of the Lumia Denim firmware update for Lumia smartphones, following word of limited availability in select markets. It was progress, sure, but we craved more information: just when could the rest of us hope to see Denim arrive. Today Microsoft speaks up and shares an update about Denim's progress, but at the same time removes its fine-grained update status pages. The new statement gives us another overview of the Denim features to expect, but we know enough about those already – what about that ETA? You've got a little bit of ...

All the way back in September, when Microsoft was introducing new Windows Phone hardware like the Lumia 830, it also had an announcement to make about new firmware on the horizon: Lumia Denim. The update was set to deliver features like 4K video recording – when it got here, that is. Word was that Denim would hit WP8.1 Lumia handsets starting sometime this quarter, but it's been seriously slow to arrive; so far, there's some early evidence for distribution to phones in China, but users in the West remain out of luck. However, that may be just about to change, as Microsoft's spotted ...

Sprint hasn't been famous for launching Windows Phone 8.1 devices. As a matter of fact, the company hasn't really launched any at the moment, and specially Lumia devices across its pre-paid customer brands. The good news is that both Sprint and Microsoft have announced a partnership today to end this problem, and we start with an aggressive device for its price tag. Microsoft and Sprint have just announced the launch of the Lumia 635 on the Sprint post-paid network as soon as December 23rd, and on its pre-paid companies like Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile as early as January 16. The device ...

The Lumia 535 is Microsoft's latest smartphone, and while it may be most noteworthy for being the Lumia that finally ditched all its Nokia branding in favor of a pure-Microsoft approach, it's also a solid mid-ranger in its own regard. Or at least, it would be, if it weren't for the presence of an annoying little glitch. Users have reported issues with getting the phone's touchscreen input to function properly, specifically citing frustrations over taps going undetected, or the screen even being too sensitive for its own good. The good news is that salvation may be arriving soon, as ...